The Week That Was in Property

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released their quarterly house price index results for June 2015 earlier this week.

The results were similar to what CoreLogic RP Data reported nearly three months ago and showing strong growth in Sydney and Melbourne home values while growth conditions were moderate elsewhere with falls in Perth and Darwin over the past year.

The data, which relies upon information supplied by CoreLogic RP Data, also included information on the value and number of dwellings across the country as at June 2015.

Values continue to soar

According to the data, the total value of dwellings at the end of June 2015 was $5.76 trillion having increased by 12.1% over the year.

The data also reports that there were an estimated 9,528,300 dwellings across Australia as at the end of June with the number of dwellings increasing by 1.7% over the past year.

Looking at the breakdown of dwellings by state, the Northern Territory has seen the greatest increase over the year (+3.0%) followed by Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory (both +2.4%).

Elsewhere, the number of residential dwellings has increased by +1.3% in both New South Wales and Adelaide over the year, by 1.9% in both Victoria and Queensland and by 1.0% in Tasmania.

While the ABS House Price Index has just been released for the June quarter, CoreLogic RP Data will be reporting how the housing market fared over the month of September on Thursday October 1st.

The five city aggregate index has shown a slip of -0.3% over the past 28 days which is a substantial slowdown from the previous three months.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence index recorded a sharp bounce last week following the change of Prime Minister last week.

According to the Index, consumer confidence rose by 8.7% last week and is now recorded at 114.5 points which is slightly above the long-term average.

It is a positive initial response to a change in leadership however, it remains to be seen whether or not the bounce in confidence can be maintained.

With the change in Prime Minister, the Australian dollar has also staged a mini rally, reaching a recent daily high of $0.72US.

Over the week ending September 20, CoreLogic RP Data captured 2,343 auction results, accounting for 91% of all auctions held across the capital cities.

The final auction clearance rate over the past week was recorded at 69.9%, down from 71.2% over the preceding week and lower than the 70.8% clearance rate a year ago.

In fact it was the first time the combined capital cities auction clearance rate has been below 70% since the beginning of February this year.

Both Sydney and Melbourne saw auction clearance rates fall last week

Melbourne’s clearance rate was 73.7% across 1,051 results, down from 74.3% across 1,189 results the previous week.

Sydney’s clearance rate was down from 73.1% the previous week to 70.7% last week.

There were 1,041 auctions held across Sydney last week, with 923 results captured.

The fall in Sydney clearance rate resulted in the lowest clearance rate for the city this year.

The national number of newly advertised properties increased by 4.9% relative to the same period one year ago to reach 44,753 properties added to the listings pool over the past twenty eight days.

Across the combined capital cities new listings are also 4.9% higher than they were at the same time last year.

Sydney in particular has seen the largest increase in new listings relative to a year ago, up 19.0%.

New listings are also higher than a year ago in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra

Meanwhile new listings are lower than a year ago in Perth, Hobart and Darwin where housing market conditions tend to be softer.

Total stock levels are now roughly similar to levels a year ago, -0.3% nationally and marginally higher (+1.7%) across the combined capital cities.

Total stock levels in Sydney, Perth and Darwin are now higher than they were a year ago with total listings in Sydney at their highest level since late last year.

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